I am a high-school dropout myself and am mostly self-taught. I started a locksmith business in the Denver metro area when I was 21 and taught myself how to pick

I am a high-school dropout myself and am mostly self-taught. I started a locksmith business in the Denver metro area when I was 21 and taught myself how to pick locks, open vehicles and service locks on homes, automobiles and businesses and a ton of other things as well. I did use books and videos to learn. I switched to software engineering when I was 30 and did the same thing. I don't think learning specific material in school is really that important but more so the learning how to learn combined with "creativity". We have far too many people in this world who are good at following instructions but what we really need in my opinion is people who are creative and can solve tough problems, not follow instructions. Learning things along the way is easy if there is a solid creative base and persistence. I suppose there can be some highly specialized areas where you need to be in school the whole way and get certifications etc (e.g. surgeon, law). But in practicality, I want to have creative children who grow up to be multi-talented and have confidence that they can learn whatever they need to learn to solve problems of the modern world. This is why we send them to a Waldorf school.